


The Will to Deploy

by gentlesquid_andink



Category: The Brave (TV 2017)
Genre: Adam Dalton loves eating his girl, Anal Sex, Dom/sub, Enthusiastic Consent, F/M, Kink Negotiation, M/M, McG's ass, Multi, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Not Suitable/Safe For Work, OT3, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Praise Kink, Sensation Play, best girlfriend ever, but not graphic details, post-battle tropes, references to violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-06-11 05:00:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15308034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gentlesquid_andink/pseuds/gentlesquid_andink
Summary: Top comes back from a clusterfuck of a failed mission and struggles to contain his reactions; Jaz and McG know a way to help him out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Aduuuh said Adam just wants to sub already and it was so, so true. This is born of the same headcannon as A Matter of Opportunity and much of The Care and Kissing of One Adam Dalton, but should be mostly understandable without them. (By why not read them if you haven't, hmmmm???)
> 
> There is stuff in here that may be triggery - Top is struggling to deal with some awful, violent shit and, while that's mostly referenced obliquely for the most part and not described in too much graphic detail, the last thing I want to do is set someone off. He's also quite happy to be bossed around by a dom-savvy friend and girlfriend and you might not want to read/think about such things. So. Take care of yourselves, fair readers! Heed the tags and warnings.
> 
> Also? There are so many tropes contained within that I can't even bear to count or list them. Be forewarned of that, too ;-p

Fucking hellhole of a backwards-ass country. That kid had no right being in military service, running around like he thought waving a gun in some bad guy’s face was enough. Fucking cocky and undisciplined and stupid enough to get himself killed. Got a bunch of other people killed along the way with him, too. The ‘price of doing business,’ except no business needed to be that bloody.

And now he was going to be seeing it in his head, replaying it over and over, Adam knew. There was no way he was coming back from this one easily. No, his psyche was going to insist on fits and starts and perseverating all over the place. Like there was a damn thing he could do about any of it now.

Fuck.

```````````

Amir was sitting on top of the picnic table out front when Jaz made her way into the Quonset. "I wouldn't go in there."

She slowed her roll to pause in front of him, as tired as she was. "Why not?"

As the newest member of the team, Amir was still trying to figure out the lines between his teammates, the tricks and expectations for extending however much privacy they could afford. He wasn't quite sure how much he should reveal to Jaz, even if he knew she was...involved...with their CO. 

"Top isn't taking it well, how we stalled out."

Jaz looked to the Quonset, bit her bottom lip and returned to Amir. "Could you give us a bit? Let me see what's up?"

"Of course. Good luck. Let me know if there's anything else I should understand, you know?" 

She did. Amir was a good teammate in these situations. Not one to make his presence into an intrusion, but always so ready to step up. As she prepared to head inside, she bumped fists and nodded her thanks.

```````````

Paperwork for their after action reports was scattered between the de facto desk, the kitchen table, the couch, in front of which Top was mid-turn. Ah, yes. Pacing. A time-honored tradition of post-mission adrenaline. Except she’d never actually seen Top push outwards in his need to cope, even on missions that went sideways.

As soon as he caught sight of her, his face darkened, some kind of warning already in his mouth. Jaz was all too familiar with this kind of rage, the helplessness of being unable to keep it self-contained. Before any words of ‘stop’ or ‘don’t’ or ‘leave’ made their way out of Top, Jaz took a step back and stopped. She raised her hands in the universal sign for surrender. “I’m just passing through.” Yet she stood there, still and watching and waiting for some indication that Top wasn’t going to stop her, didn’t need her there with him more than he needed to blow off whatever this was with whatever vague sense of privacy they could afford him.

“Jaz -” That single sideways shake of his head suggested he was maybe going for warning; the undertones in his voice just sounded imploring.

She nodded, once. Then she walked in a clearly measured gait to their dorm. Top didn’t know why - he could understand her pause, her need to demonstrate she wasn’t a threat. He was sure he looked like a man made only of wrath and heartache, capable of great vengeance. Fleeting, in the back of his mind, were dangerous thoughts, like going after her to tell her he wasn’t a danger, not anymore, to make sure she knew he would be alright with time. To apologize.

```````````

“We have a problem,” Jaz announced as she shut the door behind her.

McG startled and finished pulling a clean t-shirt over his head and down his torso. One look at her face and he skipped the commentary about her sneaking into his room without a knock or a warning. “What’s going on?”

“Top. I mean, have you seen him out there?”

McG shook his head, expression earnest. “Nah - Preach and I were the first ones in. He checked out on departure - no medical mishaps. Said he was fine.”

Jaz’s face broke incredulous and, under that, worried. “He is _not_ fine.”

The fact that Jaz was here, alerting him instead of handling it herself was proof enough that she was really worried. Lord knew she wasn’t shy when it came to standing up to their CO, not when it mattered. Whatever it was that was going on had her spooked.

The medic figured he should investigate for himself, see if he couldn’t get Top to talk it through with him. He knew shit had been bad back there; maybe Top was having trouble processing it on his own. This was exactly the sort of scenario that motivated McG to work at establishing a strong relationship with his teammates. If there were a medical crisis, physical or mental, he was their first line of defense.

Before he could get to the door, though, Jaz reached for him. She was shaking her head, adding “We need a plan.”

If shit was bad enough to get her here, asking for his help, that was probably a good idea.

```````````

They had decided that both of them approaching Top would likely make him feel crowded, like they had ganged up on him. Jazzy was in their sometimes-shared room right now packing an overnight bag. In case Adam agreed that getting away from the Quonset for a night might be best.

McG poked his head around the corner from the dorms, eased out with slow, open movements. “Hey, Top.”

The tension in his CO’s body was readable from across the open common room. But the shine of his eyes as McG made his way closer? The slight hitch in his breath? “What.” That barked response wasn’t the tight, in command Top that had gotten them home. Jaz was right. For some reason, they were dealing with a world of hurt here. And one stubborn, self-reliant soldier.

“Just wondering about your plans tonight. Gonna turn in early?”

Top’s eyes were wandering around the room like he might find a more sensible response anywhere but in the man in front of him. “After that clusterfuck? You have any idea how much I have to clean up when we can’t even -”

“Whoa, whoa, hey.”

Top bit off what he was saying as McG approached. The medic knew he was taking a risk, coming in so close. He was banking on all the time he’d spent conditioning Adam, getting him to trust that McG would only ever work with him when he was hurt, never break his trust. That and Adam’s own particular responsiveness to his calming touch. He used that knowledge now, walking close enough to speak into his ear, soft and steady. “Jaz is worried about you.”

Adam had stilled, but was still practically vibrating. All that frustration and a fair bit of trauma barely contained.

Shit. He hadn’t meant to scare her. He probably should have suggested separate sleeping quarters tonight and holed up in his room instead of letting himself unravel right where anyone could see. Fucking Xander probably would have said something about that being a subconscious desire to be seen. Adam sighed to himself. Fact that he could even have that fictitious conversation with his old pal from Psych meant it was probably true.

The doc right in front of him was laying out a plan made it seem like he would have agreed. “We thought, maybe we go into Adana - get a hotel room for tonight? Get away from here, help you clear your head.”

Adam looked up at the taller man. That could go a number of different ways, most of which seemed all too appealing right now, locked up in his fugue. Maybe if McG offered some of his steadiness, it would help transmit something outside of his own head; help shift him over to that lovely, luscious headspace where it didn’t matter that he didn’t understand how to make any of this okay. McG was so good at that.

He took a step forward, closer still to McG, and nodded. “Yeah.”

“Yeah?” McG always double-checked. He was so good to him.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”

“You good with Jaz joining us, too? We do only what you say, remember. Or you two can go if you want.”

Adam looked up to see Jaz standing just inside the common area, duffle held low. Waiting.

“The three of us,” he clarified for McG, but was looking at Jaz. “If that’s alright?” Jaz was nodding; of course it was. “I think that might be...good. For me.” Adam rubbed a hand over his face.

McG moved his hand to his back, steered him over toward his girl. “That all we want, bud.” It felt a bit like exchanging custody as he jogged down the short hall to repack his own go bag.

```````````

Jaz drives them to Adana. It’s strange: Top hasn’t really spent much time with Jaz behind the wheel. McG had opened the backdoor for him, clapped his hand in between Top’s shoulders as he scooted to the other side. They sit in the backseat of the jeep with the passenger seat unoccupied. McG is beside him, not quite crowding him, but not tucked into the opposite corner, either. They hit a bump that sends the jeep into the air enough to lift asses off their seats; “Sorry!” Jaz throws over the divider between them.

Top barely feels it. He’s too busy going over [examples of details] in his mind, over and over. Again. He knows he cannot change the course of action that unfolded. He cannot change the continuous unfolding and refolding in his mind, either. He clenches a fist and McG’s palm is there, closing over his own hand. The doc rubs a strong thumb across the inside of his wrist and Adam releases the tension keeping his fingers clenched. Lets McG slot his long fingers between his own, threading a different kind of pressure along the nerves lining his skin. It is a distraction, if nothing else.

It could be something else before the night is over, though, he thinks. Right now, he’s okay with anything that keeps him in the moment, though.

McG brings their hands onto his lap and slots his thigh up alongside Adam’s own. Adam takes a deeper breath than any other he’s had since that morning.

```````````

They get to Adana and McG goes inside to get them a room. Jaz stays behind in the car with Top, allowing them time (and space alone together) for Jaz to ask if Top’s really okay with this, with bringing McG with them, with letting him work out his frustrations this way. “It’s okay if you’re not. I mean, you gotta do something - you can’t just, order the team to leave while you wallow in -”

“If you say ‘pity,’” Adam croaks out. And if he doesn’t look pitiful with his head hanging at this tragic angle and his eyes big and sad and so so blue.

“Do I do pity? Because I was under the impression that I was about to do a hot weekend away with two very beautiful men.”

It’s the first she’s spoken of how things might go, once McG starts pushing him towards some subby comfort. With Jaz there being all - attentive and watchful and who the fuck knows what else. He feels his entire body open another notch at the thought. “Yeah?”

“Oh yeah.” She crawls over the console to the back seat, kneels facing the back, facing her love. “You ever see how you look when you let us make you slow down and take some stupid freaking help?” Her hand came up to his face, right thumb digging in to hold his chin. His breathing somehow slowed and quickened at the same time.

The vibrating ruckus of her cell phone has him startling. Jaz presses her hand to Top’s chest a moment to make sure he settles before reaching back front to retrieve it. “Room 700.” She looks back up from her phone. “You ready?”

Top almost sounds like himself. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

They open the doors into the summer heat. Jaz insists on carrying their bag and, when Top attempts to take it from her, she ducks out of his attempted hold and teases, “You want to play here, Top?” Looks him dead on, sardonic challenge in the tilt of her eyebrow. “Might want to wait for that until we get upstairs.”

_This plan was perfect, if they didn’t kill him with it first._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Readers. Please heed the warnings before playing. The really fun and filthy stuff is coming next chapter, Part 3, but there is much that may be triggery (or just a major turn-off) right here. 
> 
> Unless kink negotiation, vulnerable!Adam, or this OT3 are your jam. Then: Happy Weekend :-D

When they got to the room, Jaz made Top knock. McG opened the door and Jaz watched as Top stood up straighter, waiting to be ushered in with a flick of the medic’s head. Well, then. Looks like McG’s playing the enforcer tonight.

She isn’t quite sure what to expect. It was one thing to know Adam needed something, needed more than the usual release she could offer. And she had seen how he responded to McG’s insistent care when he was injured, everyone had. That didn’t mean she knew what might happen tonight, though, under McG’s charge. Still, she trusted him - and trusted them together. She was Team Adam, always would be, and so was McG.

Some of the nervous energy that had dissipated in the car returned to Adam. McG was observing, standing to the left just inside the room. Jaz watched him watch their CO look around. “You secure the room?”

McG’s tone was measured as he replied in the negative. It was a five star hotel. They weren’t on the job. Of course he hadn’t. Top just swore and stalked over to the window, ran his fingers over several surfaces checking for bugs. Their medic waited until he had checked the usual suspects before interrupting. “Why don’t you come over here, Adam. We can talk. Get a few things sorted.”

It wasn’t that he joined reluctantly; he just slowed as he felt some of the heaviness of his lost control lift under McG’s command. Still, Adam hated needing to give it up, perhaps just as much as he had the first few times McG insisted on treating more physical wounds. McG was so sure of himself, so easy with his decisions and his faith that they could do what was best. Like knowing they needed to be on the same page for any of this to work.

“You good with this, with being here this weekend, the three of us?”

Adam didn’t go back to wandering the room’s edges, but his gaze shifted and he licked his lips. “I told Jaz down in the car…”

“Well now you’re telling me.” A bit of that rage at being stuck inside this particular funk on this side of his inability to self-manage flooded Top’s face. McG wasn’t going to let that get in the way, though. Not when he had expectations to set. “Look, you know the drill. We assess the situation together. I don’t try to treat you without you talking to me.” He emphasize this next point with a hand gesturing off to the side, signaling some fleeting distance. “You don’t go running off without talking to me first.”

Getting called out set Top in motion. First he took a challenging step closer to McG, then seemed to think better of it. He twisted back and paced in the opposite direction, heading between the bed and the door into the bathroom. Jaz was watching carefully from her perch on a console table on the wall facing the beds. She might not be quite as skilled at this whole thing as either of the men with her, but she knew Top. There was a new guilt layering on top of whatever was eating him about this particular mission.

“I just - I can’t -”

A long pause. _Can’t...even finish sentences, apparently,_ thought Jaz. In four years with this team, she didn’t think she had ever seen Top stuck. She had seen him resist treatment a few times, putting off McG’s fussing in the field. He always always always relented in the end, though.

As soon as it registered with Jaz, McG was acting on it, giving Adam a way to work it out. “That’s why we’re talking now, right?”

Top stopped stomping around, his frustrated movement on pause. The sadness and hope mixing on Adam’s face reminded Jaz of earlier, in the car. That’s when she really knew he was on board. This was a Good Thing - and he knew it, too.

She eased back a bit and pulled her right foot up onto the edge table with her. Adam was nodding, roughly and with a fair amount of resentment.

“Can you say it for me, for now at least?”

“Yes. We’re talking now.”

“Good.” From the set of McG’s shoulders, still as straight, but now set further back, Jaz learns that McG enjoys this. Hunh. She had always assumed it was just something he was good at, maybe something he had learned as an extension of looking after folks who weren't good at being looked after. Moving quietly, she tucked herself further up onto the console table to see what else she could learn.

“That’s good, Adam.” He flushed with the praise, but also squirmed a bit. McG knew by the end of the night, he’d be laying all kinds of compliments on his friend and Adam would be soaking them all in without a thought. For now, though, they had some protocols to establish.

“You know the traffic light system?” They used it sometimes when there were no good options for issues in the field. Jaz was pretty sure the only ‘red’ Top had ever given was to heavy-duty painkillers.

“Yes.”

“We’re gonna use that for this.” _This._ Adam wasn’t sure what _this_ was going to be. Wasn’t McG supposed to be telling him that? Someone was supposed to be in command and it damn well shouldn’t be him, not after the forlorn hope of this last mission.

McG saw something like disbelief mixed with resentment cross Adam’s face. If they had made time for this conversation before, if he had insisted that Adam tell him more about this aspect of his care protocols, they might not be trying to cover this ground while Adam was clearly struggling to hold himself together. But he hadn’t and they were. McG wasn’t wandering in without a better idea of what was going on. Assessment first, then they could go about figuring out the best options for treatment.

That said, he did know a few things about Adam - what he liked but rarely indulged, how he responded best when McG thought he needed more attention than he wanted. They’d have to start with something to physically remind Adam that he was present, he was right here with them. Get him to clear his conscience enough to think he deserved something good so he wasn’t expecting this to be about punishment. That start of a plan in place, McG walked forward into Adam’s periphery, slow steady movement.

“Up against the wall for me.” Adam stepped back once, twice, until his feet hit the baseboard. “That’s it. Lean back into it.” Adam felt his chest ease another notch. McG’s hand on his shoulder lining him up against something solid was just what he wanted. Heels and ass and shoulders pressed into the wall. Head back, chin tilted up while he adjusted to this loose containment.

“I’d like you to take some deep breaths, work your way up to three hundred. Full in your belly, nice and slow. You know how to do it?”

“Yes.”

“Good. That’s good, Adam.” Once Adam had made it a dozen count or so, McG joined Jaz at her perch.

“What about you? You okay with the traffic system for tonight?”

Jaz nodded.

“Anything else you want me thinking about before we really get going?” McG prompted.

What started as shaking of her head in the negative slowed as Jaz remembered to speak up for herself. “One thing, I guess. I don’t want to see him hurt. Even if he’s asking for it. No...pain. Slapping. Anything like that. I don’t think I could handle that.” Jaz was actively trying not to imagine a world in which Top would ask to be hurt.

“Oh, God - no! That is not my thing. Even if he wanted it, I couldn’t do it.” The fondness on McG’s face, not just for Top, but for her, was reassuring.

“Well, then,” Jaz drawled. “Do your thing, McG.” She leaned back on both hands. McG smiled his thanks and gave her raised knee a gentle squeeze before turning back to their commander. "We're gonna bring you in, too, you know," he threw over his shoulder. Jaz just grinned. She still didn't think this was really about her.

Adam’s eyes were closed. Since he couldn’t see him approach, McG announced his intentions. “You almost done with clearing your mind, Adam?”

A nod in the affirmative. “297...” Another calming breath. “298…”

“Good.” McG came closer, about a foot in front of him. “Can you tell us what you want from us tonight?”

Adam’s fingers clenched into fists at his sides. “It’s okay if you can’t,” McG assured him. “We’ll figure it out together. We just need to know what’s going on in that gorgeous mind of yours.” Another flush; this time, the tips of his ears stayed red. “If you stay there, stay up against the wall, can you tell us what you keep seeing from earlier?”

That feeling in the pit of his stomach, the ugly lick of something tight across his shoulders. And then Jaz imploring, “You can do it, Adam. You can tell us.”

Adam. He wasn’t Top right now.

“I keep thinking about that damn kid. With the - assault rifle and the, and the attitude." He spit out, "He shouldn’t have been there.”

“You know you couldn’t have kept him alive, right, Adam?” Jaz sounded more shocked than she was. She knew what it was like. The pieces that hit you hardest didn’t always make sense.

Head still back against the hotel room wall, Adam was starting to get restless with that reminder. McG was having none of that.

“It’s okay, Adam. I know how hard it is for you to think about that.” He cupped his cheek, scratched his thumbnail down through his beard. Just enough to be a distraction. He felt, rather than heard, Adam’s indrawn breath. Okay: sensation play. Check. He crowded in even further, lined his body right up against Adam’s side and found his ear. “You don’t have to think about any of that tonight. You know that, right? We can give you something else to think about. Maybe not think at all?”

Eyes still closed, Adam was nodding and nodding. “Color, Adam.”

“Green. That’s - green.”

“Good.”

Now McG has some plans, some fun little ideas of how to get their Adam in better shape. By the end of the night, he'd be lax and loose, not a care in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I liiiieeeed. Or am just the worst planner of multi-part fics ever. Currently estimated to have another two parts. Aiming to release on Sundays...
> 
> (PLEASE feel free to come remind me, make specific asks, or even just point out what worked best for you over on tumblr! Sydbond can attest to the fact that it doesn't always work, but holding me accountable when I give an estimated release date is super helpful!!)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear lovely readers. Please heed the tags and take care of yourselves - there's some serious play ahead in this chapter and everything that follows. It's okay if you aren't into threesomes, power differences, sensation play, restraints of any kind. It's also okay if you're just dipping the proverbial toe because you're excited for any and all Jalton play at this point ;-) But there may be triggery turn-offs included and I trust you to only read what you know you can handle.
> 
> For everyone else, have fun! And feel free to reward that fun with some kudos/comment love :-D

Adam knew where he was: he was pressed up against the wall just inside the door to their hotel room. They were in Adana. McG’s body was heavy against his left side, one strong leg between his own. His right wrist was held against the wall at his side by McG’s strong fingers. He couldn’t move away, not without putting up a fight. Obviously he could get away if he wanted. He didn’t need to, though; McG had him. The doc would tell him when it was time to move.

McG knew where he was, of course, and also what he was doing. How to send Adam to that place where he could get away from the perseverating ruin of a mission gone sideways. How to maximize all the ways that place could feel so very good. Restraint. Moving Adam where he wanted him - not roughly, but with definite weight behind the gestures. Firm. Insistent. Sensation play. Highlighting the inevitability of giving over his body with the kind of touch that forced him to stay fully present. Anything to tell his body he was here, really. Here and cared for and safe enough to let go.

And praise. God, the look on Adam’s face when you told him he was good, he deserved this, he was worthy. Christ. He went all the way from fighting it to soaking it all in and that, that made McG feel so goddamn powerful.

“Doing good, Adam.” Jaz threw the compliment their way. Apparently what Jaz knew was overwatch, which was exactly what she was doing, butt planted on the console table facing the bed. That was okay, for now, he figured. She jumped in how she saw fit. Like boosting Adam’s belief in how good this was gonna be.

McG directed his own reinforcement into Adam’s ear. Low. Confident. “Hear that, Adam? Jazzy thinks you’re doing good.” McG felt him shifting a bit, squirming under him at that. “Wanna show her?”

Nodding, Adam tried to find his voice. “Yeah. I’m gonna show her.”

“Yeah you are.” McG loosened the fingers around Adam’s wrist and lifted his hand. Without thinking, Adam’s arm came up off the wall, chasing the feeling of being anchored in place. “Uh uh - back against the wall, Adam.” His breath sped up and his movements were slow as his arm returned to its former position. Adam’s head thudded back, too, pressed back instead of hanging forward. 

Once he was back in position, McG counted slowly to ten in his head. Then brought the hand that had been holding his wrist down to his side. Slid his fingers underneath his shirt to swipe his thumb lightly along a line just above his pants. Adam’s breath stuttered, but he didn’t move off of the wall. “Think you can stay in place while we figure out your favorite tv show?”

That question stuck out from the congealing sensations starting to take over Adam’s consciousness. “What?”

McG was grinning. “Nothing too complicated, right? Just a bit of a...chat...while we show Jaz how good you can follow orders.” Adam still didn’t understand the connection. 

Over on her perch a few feet away, Jaz was cracking up inside. This!? This was one of the ways McG kept her distracted when he was patching her up. It had started when she still didn’t trust him enough to keep herself still during post-mission follow-up - a way to trick her body into thinking it was just an inane conversation between friends rather than an examination. She couldn’t wait to see how Adam responded when he realized McG would be carrying on two conversations at once: questions to get him talking and, she imagined, some sort of manual manipulation. 

“Let’s start with Seinfeld.”

Jaz watched Adam roll his eyes, roll his head to the side away from McG’s question. He hated that show. “What? You don’t like Seinfeld?”

“You know that.”

McG grinned, cupped Adam’s side firmly enough to bring Adam’s head back. “Yeah, I do. I just - not sure I understand why.” 

“It isn’t funny. It’s just so -” McG raked his finger nails up Adam’s side. Even over the shirt, the pressure was enough to make the muscles jump and skitter. “Ah!”

“‘So’ - what, Adam?”

“Pointless. So pointless.”

“Hmm.” McG smoothed his hand back down over the same patch of skin. “Do you feel the same way about Friends?” And “What is it that’s so annoying about Ross?” And “What if you _had_ to go to a bar after work? What if someone you liked was there to...observe? Meet over drinks?”

And on they went, mapping out likes and dislikes of sit-coms, family dramas, murder-a-week mysteries, while McG mapped out Adam’s chest and arms and belly. Adam didn’t know when focusing on answering McG’s questions became rote, when he stopped being able to follow the words and just responded without thinking. For now, he just let the sensations flood through him, connecting the tingling of skin rubbing against his side and slipping back over his shirt, the occasional stutter as he took too long to respond and McG prompted him a second time. The anticipation at his ear and his neck where McG’s breath hit him interrupted every time McG found a new place to scratch or pinch or rub. 

Fuck, he was gonna get hard if McG kept doing that, pressing and pressing in one place while staying just beyond skin that wanted his touch. He arched his back, not really trying to break free. Trying to tell him, show him how much he wanted. 

Beautiful, Jaz thought. He was letting go and, just, giving it all up. Handing it right over.

McG thought so, too. “You want more?”

“Yeah, God. Yes.”

“Hmm.” 

McG rolled off of the wall next to him, keeping his face inches from Adam’s left ear. “You’re doing so good.” Adam whined a bit at that, still not ready to hear it. “So good,” McG emphasized. 

“Green.”

McG chuckled. Poor guy was doing everything he could think of to communicate how much this was working for him. Maybe he really was ready to kick things up to the next level. 

McG moved directly in front of him, just barely flush against Adam’s body. He switched his mouth over to Adam’s right ear and fit his hands onto his hips. Gripped the hem of his shirt between fingers and thumbs on either side. “Think we can take this off?”

“Yes. Please.” Adam started to lift his arms above his head and stopped, pressed them back against the wall.

God that was hot. McG diverted his hands to hold his arms a moment, appreciating how hard Adam was working to listen to him. Then he slid his hands down to grasp and raise Adam’s arms above his head. He went back to pulling his shirt up and over his head, moving slowly enough to keep the anticipation high. Adam’s head popped through and the sweaty fabric scraped against his skin as McG lifted it off his head and off of his arms. Tossed it in a heap between them and the bathroom door. 

McG moved in tighter. After all the random touches, the contrast between focusing on conversation and the pull of various sensations, this full, flush pressure was almost overwhelming. Adam was filling out and he was open, so open. McG could feel him sliding that much farther towards mindless sensation.

Wanting to move things along, he slipped his pointer fingers just under the waistband of Adam’s pants, one on either side of his fly.

“No - I’m -” At the same time, his hips were straining forward. McG could feel how hard he had gotten. 

“Adam - color.”

“Yellow? I’m - I don’t -”

McG took a deep breath. His friend sounded confused and anxious - maybe confused about the appearance of that feeling, too. He took his hands off of Adam’s pants, but didn’t go far. Just moved them up to a steady grip on the front of his hips. Kept his voice down low. “What is it, Adam? Can you tell me?”

So quietly, “I just - I’m hard. And Jaz is, she’s right there.”

McG thought he could understand that. “Yeah, she’s here - for you. And I’m hard, too. Just happens sometimes, when you play like this.” McG didn’t roll his hips into Adam, no matter how badly he wanted to. He could keep this a bit separated, normalize this part of it all for his friend. Give him the permission he needed without making any demands to make this about getting off that way, as well. He would follow Adam’s lead on that score.

“How about a bit of a breather, hunh?”

Adam’s hand shot out and grabbed his arm so fast. Jaz hadn’t been able to hear their muted conversation. That quick desperation when Adam had been so committed to staying in place had her leaving her seat and coming forward.

McG, meanwhile, backtracked a bit. “Hey, hey, hey. I’m not going anywhere.” Right hand cupped behind Adam’s neck, firmly holding him without restricting his movements; his left arm he let Adam hold. “I’m staying right here. Just thought maybe we could do a couple things to make you feel comfortable with how you’re responding. Can we talk about that? Just as ideas?”

Jaz caught that last bit. “They’re just ideas, Adam. We don't do anything you don't want. Can you give me your color?” McG looked back at where she was standing, about a foot away from them now. Nodded his thanks for her backup.

Adam eased his grip, “I’m green, Jaz. I can listen to ideas.” Felt his muscles start to relax again. “Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize to us. You’re doing great. Thank you for giving me your color.” 

McG’s lips twitched at how seriously Jaz was taking this. He knew from their planning meeting on base that she didn’t have much experience, but boy was she there for her love. Guy was seriously lucky. 

“So here’s one idea. You can let me take off your shoes, your socks. Your pants. We’ll turn you around, have you face the wall for a while. Take some good, deep breaths like before. Give you a chance to resettle your mind. You’ve been so good for us, Adam. So good. I know we’ve asked a lot of you today.” 

_Yeah,_ Adam thought. _All that rubbing and talking and pressing. That was...something._ Against McG’s shoulder, Adam was nodding his head. 

“Okay. We can do that.” Adam leaned his head back, directed his hazy gaze over McG’s shoulder at Jaz. Looked back at McG before closing his eyes. Ready to give in again. 

“Hang on. I have another two ideas. Can we talk about them before we begin?” Adam forced his eyes to blink open. Gave McG a slow, sincere nod. 

“You can close your eyes, as long as you can still follow my voice.” Not even trying to fight it, Adam let them slip closed again. Everything was easier this way.

“First. I want to strip down to my briefs,” McG looked back over at Jaz as he spoke. She gave a curt nod. He turned back to Adam. “Jazzy, too. You okay with that?” Adam didn’t speak, didn’t nod to either agree or dissent. 

“Adam? You thinking about it or you uncomfortable with the idea?”

“Thinking.”

“Okay. You go ahead and think about how that would make you feel, for me and Jaz to get comfortable in just our briefs.” Jaz cleared her throat. “And panties,” McG added. Well. That _was_ a different visual, wasn’t it?

“Second idea: While you’re recentering yourself, taking those breaths deep and slow, I want you to know you won’t be alone. You’ll have someone right there with you, keeping contact with you the whole time. How’s that sound?”

“Good, green.”

“And the clothes?”

“Both. You can get green.”

Fuck. Adam’s verbal responsiveness had been slowing, but that was a new turn of phrase for him. It shouldn’t be hot, but it really was. McG wasn’t lying when he said getting turned on was sometimes an inevitable side effect of this kind of thing.

“Thank you, Adam. Love how much you trust us like this.” Sloppy nodding, but no squirming this time. Just another slide down towards subspace. 

McG kneeled down in front of Adam. Jaz was glad for her new side view as she watched him slide down onto the floor. He tapped Adam’s left foot and tugged it up. Unlaced his boot and slid it off his foot. Removed his sock. All his weight on his right, Adam kept his left foot mid-air while McG leaned back on his heels a minute, just looking at how well he was following directions. He slid his palm along Adam’s sole and smiled at the hiss of inward breath that caused. “Good, Adam.” McG pressed down on top of his foot and tapped the top of his right. “Other one now.”

They repeated the removal and McG left him holding his foot up to check how Jaz was doing. From the look on her face, the boys weren’t the only ones picking up a bit of horniness from their play. “You good?”

“Green, McG." A bit of a tease; that boded well for the rest of the evening. "God you look hot like that.”

He tried not to laugh big and loud, didn’t want Adam to take it the wrong way. Put his energy into wiggling his eyebrows and redirected that energy into some mutual appreciation. “Thanks, pretty lady.”

When he turned back to Adam, he lightly slapped the underside of his foot. “Oh!” From the sound of things, he hadn’t been expecting that at all. McG just pressed until Adam lowered his foot to the floor, then stood in one long, fluid move. “Pants next.” Adam didn’t speak, didn’t nod, but he did nudge his hips forward off of the wall. Firm fingers undid the button, the zipper, pushed the material down over each leg. 

Jaz had already stripped down by the time they had finished. Not sure how Adam would react, McG kept from vocalizing his appreciation. But fuck Jaz was gorgeous. Nothing wrong with admiring that while he stripped off his pants, he figured. Not when Jaz was staring him down the entire time. Not when he had already been hard - and from playing with her boyfriend while she watched.

Then McG was walking backwards until his legs hit the bed and he could sit down on the corner. “Your turn, Jaz.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You all know the drill: heed the warnings, take care of yourself, and have fun, dear readers.
> 
> And don't forget to come back for some quality aftercare next update ;-0

Jaz knew she looked good. Nothing toned a body like belonging to an Omega Team. Firm legs, sculpted arms, and plentiful curves in between. She kept up with the best of the best. It didn’t even matter that she was in black cotton cheekies and matching sports bra - she knew where McG’s eyes had landed as soon as he looked up at her.

She also happened to know what her boyfriend found sexiest about her and it wasn’t anything she could have highlighted any better in expensive scraps of lace. Her long silky hair. The way she knew what she wanted (bossy, he said; he liked it, she said). And he loved the sound of her voice. Jaz secretly thought that last one was a bit strange: she didn’t sound girly or patient or sweet. But apparently those weren’t the things he wanted.

And he wanted. That’s why McG was handing over the proverbial reins to her. Seems Adam was struggling to make sense of all that wanting being okay with McG there alongside his actual girlfriend. Didn’t matter that Jaz found it hotter than hell; he wasn’t in a place to make heads or tails of anything right now. Which was sorta the point. So when McG stepped back and situated himself on the end of the bed, she stepped up, right up into Adam’s body, still back against the wall.

“It’s my turn now, hunh?”

A bit of a grunt. Eyes still closed.

“Hey love.” She tried again. This time he opened his eyes a slit. “There he is!” Almost immediately, though, they wandered, searching out McG. That was okay. Jaz just brought them back to McG’s plan.

“Adam.” Jaz brought a firm left hand to the center of his chest, her right going up to hold his chin steady on her. “I’m gonna turn you around, let you lean on the wall some more, okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Mm, good.” She swiped her thumb across his chin, like she had earlier in the car. If they were home, back on base, he might have leaned forward to nip at her thumb, maybe taken it in his mouth. Here he did only what he was told, but not before she felt a twitch where he was hard against her side.

Once Adam was facing the wall, she used bare toes against his achilles tendons to nudge his feet forward until they hit the baseboard. With a firm hand, she smoothed down the back of his neck, a move that earned a bit off moan and his head falling forward until his forehead rested against the wall. Her hand continued down his spine, moving, pressing, reassuring him of her presence.

And then she started talking.

“Do you know how lucky I am that you’re mine?” Low.

“A man as strong as you are, Adam?” And smooth.

“You reach your limits and you show them to me. Let me help you find them, move past them.” With every confidence.

“That’s how I know you love me.”

She kept on like that, murmuring how beautiful he was, how smart and powerful, the very best. How he was hers. All the while, her hands kept moving as slow and sure as her praise. From his position leaning back on his hands on the bed, McG couldn’t see much of how he was responding, other than the fact that his palms remained flat against the wall at shoulder height. He thought he could see a slight rise and fall to his chest, fast enough to suggest he might be panting through all this talk about how good he was, how much he was loved.

But he wasn’t whining, and he wasn’t squirming, and he wasn’t trying to move away from the fact he was beloved. That was something.

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It wasn’t that she ran out of lovely things to say; it was just that doing this, being in the charge of the scene for a bit, had Jaz breathing pretty hard herself. It was fucking heady, her hands on him and her words on him. Adam listening so hard she could see his muscles jump at her insistence. Thought maybe he was ready to amp things up another notch again, too.

Both hands firm at the back of his hips, she changed rhythms. “Okay, Adam. Color?”

He had to swallow before he could speak, but he made sure she heard him. “Green.”

“Good. That’s good. Thank you, baby.”

He was nodding and nodding. Feeling floaty. Everything good.

“I wanna bring you over to McG, can I do that?”

Under her strong grip, Adam tensed enough to concern her. Jaz was thrown, but McG just nodded at her when she looked back over her shoulder. “Before we go anywhere, can I turn you around? Right here with me?”

Yeah. With her. Adam started turning, keeping himself pressed against the wall as much as he could. Being good for her. When he was facing her, he forced himself to open his eyes. See she was right there with him.

“Hi there,” she smiled. “I’m not going anywhere - just thought we could both move over to the bed. I wanna love on you some more.” He couldn’t help it, he leaned down and nuzzled her until she turned it into a proper kiss.

They were fucking adorable, McG thought.

Lips still rubbing against his, Jaz let her hand scratch down over the front of his briefs, well to the side of his hard on, her right hand firm against the skin at his hip. He groaned a bit.

“Yeah?” Jaz asked.

Adam was still nodding when she began pulling him off the wall, across the carpet, onto the bed with McG.

```````````  
It took a few moments to transition. McG moved back and mounded the pillows behind him, then asked Adam if he wanted to lay back against him. He didn’t reply, just moved back until McG’s hands pulled him against his chest. When McG moved to reposition the pillows, Adam grabbed his hand and brought it back against his collarbone.

“Please.” He pushed out.

“Yeah. I got you.” McG tightened his grip across his wide chest.

Jaz kneeled back on her heels to their right, appraising the situation. Telegraphing her movements for Adam’s hooded eyes, she brought her hand to the inside of his knee. “Can you spread your legs for me? I’m gonna work your lower body like we did your chest and your back. That sound good?”

Adam just rearranged his legs so she could crawl in between them, scrape her fingernails up the inside of his thighs. The wet spot on his briefs was getting more noticeable now. But what could they expect, giving him all this attention? “Adam?” Jaz added from somewhere around his middle. “Don’t come.”

He wouldn’t. He went back to that nowhere space full of sensation and grand blankness. Where he should have known so many things the only spots left were his skin and Jaz’s mouth and McG holding him down down down. He thought maybe Jaz asked if she could take off his underwear, so he lifted his hips. Yes. Skin. Mouth. Green.

From underneath Adam, McG could feel the guy practically vibrating as Jaz ran her mouth back and forth over his thighs, his crease. She sucked one of his balls and he thought Adam might lose it, but he didn’t. He just rocked back against McG and punched out some unrestrained noise. She kept this up much longer, McG might come in his cotton briefs like a teenager watching live action porn.

“Adam?”

He arched up at her question, testing the feeling of McG holding him down, holding him back. Behind him, McG grunted as the motion put added pressure on his erection. It’s taking quite a bit of effort on his part not to do anything to take his own pleasure from the situation. It would be far too easy to rub up against Adam - he’s not even sure he would mind. But that’s not why they’re here. They’re here for Adam and McG can be good, too.

Jaz watches this tiny exchange, sees the desperation starting to creep into McG’s face as Adam writhes against him. As pretty as that is to see (and it is, it’s so fucking hot), none of that gets Jaz any answers. She’s so turned on at this point, she doesn’t want to keep talking Adam into his ongoing absolution. She’s been wet for hours, since the drive over, really. God, she’d be a much better girlfriend if she could just come. Then she would be back on board with Team Adam, she swore.

“Adam.” More demanding in tone this time, trying to sound like McG’s highly effective blend of command and care and overshooting entirely. It did get Adam to open his eyes and find hers, though.

Jaz tried again. “You’re doing so good, I know how hard you’re trying not to come. Letting us help you.”

Slightly unsure with her approach and knowing her self-control was slipping, Jaz looked up at McG. He recognized her silent plea for reinforcement and, keeping his eyes on her, spoke into Adam’s ear, low and buzzing.

“You hear that? Jazzy says you’re good at this. You being good for her?”

Adam didn’t reply, but he did bring his right hand up, its movement searching for its mate from his love. Jaz took his fingers between her own and used the new connection as an excuse to resettle herself, legs on either side of her guys’.

“Mmm hmm. He’s so good to me. Even when he’s held all the way down.” Her weight on his thighs added to McG’s strong arms his shoulders and chest. Adam thought he might just float away with it all. He couldn’t, though. Jaz was talking to him. Had to stay here with her.

“Adam…” She couldn’t help it, his name came out on a sigh. “You look so good, so hot like that, all - wrapped up and -” she looked down. “Leaking.”

Christ. It was one thing for McG to distance himself from the glorious sight before him; it was another thing entirely to listen to Jaz’s husky voice providing commentary on it all.

“I gotta get off.” She sounded almost apologetic about needing it, but McG empathized in full. That’s just the way this went sometimes.

“What do you think? Can we fuck, like this?” Something about her words, her question, disturbed the calm Adam had been riding. His struggle was real this time and it threw Jaz out of their flow. “What is it?”

“Color, Adam.” McG prompted.

“Green. Greengreengreen.”

A bit of open laughter huffed out of McG at that. “Think he wants you to fuck him, Jazzy. You gonna ride him, just like this?”

She just nodded and moved her center up over him. Reminded him to behave. “Don’t come until we tell you. Got it?”

Adam went still when he wanted to push up into her. Jaz took that as sufficient agreement that he would wait for the greenlight, so to speak, so she eased down on him, let him fill her up. Oh God that was...really something. Adam could feel how hard McG was against his back and now Jaz was wet and tight around him. His mouth opened, but no sound came out as Jaz started riding him, up and forward and short circular bursts.

It didn’t take long until Jaz could feel her orgasm building, tight and low in her belly. She let it happen, felt it start to crash over her in waves.

Jaz was moaning and coming and Adam stayed true, held onto his own pleasure. Adam lifted his head up and back towards McG. Slurry, but sure, “You green?”

“Yeah. Yeah I’m green.” McG reassured him, his voice tight as he held on to his thin grasp on self-control.

“Mmm.” And then Adam found his mouth, fit it against his own and kissed him. Moaned into his mouth as he felt Jaz still rippling against him. McG realized Adam was keeping his word, he was waiting - just like he was told to do. Their kiss ended and Adam’s head fell back onto his shoulder again. McG looked down his body as Jaz dismounted and fell back to the bed just to the left of them. He could hear her panting as she came down.

And Adam. Adam’s cock was so hard it was pressed straight up against his belly, shiny now and flushed a deep red. McG’s voice was wrecked as he gave one last command. “Go ahead, Adam. You can come now. Did good for us, so good.”

That was enough of a prompt to get Jaz to bring her hand around him, not jerking him, just to squeeze. Adam let a broken bit of wail out with his breath as his orgasm unfurled with McG’s permission.

The ease with which he came after all that stimulation was hotter than Jaz had truly understood it would be. “God, Adam. You’re so beautiful. So good, baby.” Jaz wasn’t sure if he could hear her over the waves that kept coming, but she kept up the praise until he was lying limp back against their friend. As soon as he was done, McG eased out from behind him, laying Adam against the pillows carefully while simultaneously working himself free of his own damp briefs. Furiously pumping, McG was coming within seconds, squirting right across their Adam’s exhausted body.

McG practically collapsed after, scooting up to align himself at Adam's side. Jaz hauled herself up and over, as well. And all she could think as they sandwiched a very sleepy Adam between them, already drifting off herself, was _Fuck. That was the hottest thing that had ever happened to her._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't think anyone would mind if this went up slightly ahead of schedule ;-) Happy weekend, y'all.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not anything terribly explicit in this chapter, folks, but please do review the tags for general self-guidance on whether to proceed. We've got one more, possibly two more chapters after this one - an extension of this aftercare back on base and some planning these three have to get in place. You know, for next time ;-)

For a few blissful hours, everyone slept. Adam was out almost immediately, his rest solid and heavy. Not surprising, given how hard he’d hit his release tonight. He started on his back and, in his sleep, curled to his right, almost reaching McG’s solid weight. As they did often on the narrow bunks on base, Jaz turned with him and fitted herself along Adam’s back and behind his knees. Her forehead pressed between his shoulder blades; the points where they met, skin to skin, served as subconscious reminders that all was well.

McG, for his part, dozed in and out of actual sleep. It’s not like he was exactly unused to sharing a bed. He just had a different stake in making sure these particular partners were rested and well and still here. After a few hours of dreaming off and on, McG rolled carefully out of bed and padded off to the bathroom.

The sound of the shower woke Jaz. Or rather, the sound of the shower combined with the warm skin and supple muscle still along her front confused her enough to get her mind moving again. If Adam was still right here...and someone else was in their shower...then she must be in a hotel. With McG.

Adam either came to the same conclusion or heard Jaz’s thoughts starting to cohere. As Jaz was making up her mind to detach herself from her love and go check on McG, see if he had everything he needed - maybe say thanks - Adam started shuffling around to face her. She moved back to give him space to maneuver and reached to pull a blanket up over them. McG had turned up the air; might as well get what they paid for, right? And apparently what they paid for made a great excuse for cuddling under a down comforter.

The large, firm hands that found her with some grip and a pull were pretty insistent. Looked like Adam might still be feeling the effects of their playtime last night. Jaz let Adam pull her back to him, settled herself partially on top of him. Might as well get comfortable for a chat. Jaz placed her hand over his heart and stretched up to kiss him where his beard faded into cheekbone.

“It’s still early. You wanna sleep some more?”

“Nah, I’m -” He leaned into her hair where it pooled above his shoulder. “This is good.”

“‘kay.” Jaz snuggled down into his chest, partially burrowed under the soft, weighty blanket. She couldn’t resist rubbing her face into him, drawing on the safety of being cocooned here with him. “McG might wanna come wrap you up in more love, too. You want that?”

If they’d been playing still, Adam might have squirmed. Or arched against that knowledge. Or let out that happy little hum he gave when anticipated sensations bled through from his imagination to his skin. He did none of those things, though, which told Jaz he wasn’t feeling subby, not the way he had a few hours ago. Jaz suspected Adam had ridden past the crest of whatever sorrowful wave had overwhelmed him this mission.

Adam’s voice was sure. Thoughtful. “He can - if he wants. I don’t exactly mind being between the two of you.”

Something about the quiet honesty of that confession pointed to an open question Jaz hadn’t realized was lingering in her as they lay in bed together. “Yeah? You weren’t always clear how you felt about...certain things. With McG.”

How was Adam supposed to tell his girlfriend - a woman by all rights he wasn’t supposed to even have - that he didn’t mind being fucked out of his mind by their friend and teammate; but only when he was incapable of actual rational thought or the power to keep himself still? That it both didn’t matter and was the most intimate thing between them that he could wrap his mind around? He wasn’t prepared for that, not yet. Not when he was still riding this impossible calm from whatever they had done to him the night before. He was all strung out on their touch and not having to make these kinds of decisions.

“Hey, hey,” Jaz brought her hand up to Adam’s jaw, squeezed enough to earn a pleasant grunt. “We don’t have to talk about it now. Right this moment. But sometime. Okay?”

“Yeah.” Adam used his right hand to rub across his face, dislodging Jaz’s fingers and distracting himself from the buzzing they had generated. _”Soon,”_ she demanded, resettling at his side.

“Yeah, Jaz. We’ll...have a plan in place. For next time.”

That’s all she was asking. Adam knew her, though, and continued, “You were something else, like this. Giving me what I needed, this...complete distraction from everything.” He kissed the top of her head. “From myself.”

“The pleasure was all mine. Well. And McG’s.” She gave him a light nip in his pec and smoothed her hand down the ripples of his indrawn breath. “Speaking of which,” she continued. “I wonder if we should go check on him. He’s been in there a while.”

Adam wasn’t trying to leave this bed. Not with Jaz’s teeth scraping him like that and her fingernails wandering around his skin. Her acceptance that they could settle this and develop a plan and it was just like any other tactical issue they had ever faced. Like he could just have this.

“It’s unlimited hot water. You know McG.”

“That’s my point. Do you know _this_ McG?” Jaz leaned up onto her elbow. “Adam, what do you know about aftercare?”

```````````  
A while after they began talking, McG emerged with steam following him into the bedroom. “Ah! Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you.”

Jaz nudged Adam in the side. “S’ok. Slept pretty hard.” The two of them sat up in bed, the sheets and comforter pooling between them. “Thank you.”

The bag McG had packed was stowed under the console table Jaz had taken as her perch when they initially entered the room. He pulled it up and pulled out cotton boxer briefs. “No problem.”

Without looking, Adam knew Jaz was sending him her most adroit undercover glare. He swung his legs off the bed and looked around for the bag Jaz had packed for them. “It was a problem. You fixed it. Fixed me…”

McG grabbed it and carried it over.

“Nah - don’t need fixing.” He dropped the bag on the floor next to the bed. “Maybe just some reminding every once in a while.”

Adam caught the way his correction, his reminder about reminders, could be lobbed in both directions. He thought about how he might help McG with some subtle reminders as the medic went back to his own bag to poke around some more. There’s something in his hand when McG finished rummaging. Then he was holding up his beard trimmer. Jaz’s snort was only partially hidden. Adam was slightly less amused. “Aw come on. You brought that?”

McG shrugged. “Thought you might let me take care of you.”

With a harrumphy sigh and the start of an eyeroll, Adam caught himself just in time. Thought about what Jaz had said about topdrop. “You already did take care of me. Real good, too.”

Jaz wondered if Adam caught how McG’s breath hitched a bit, the slight pause before he walked over to Adam. “Yeah, well, now I wanna do it some more. You gonna let me?”

There was only a bit of challenge in McG’s eyes: he had more softness to him now. Jaz watched Adam take that in before relenting.

“Just - don’t make me too pretty.”

McG was appraising Adam, still naked and soft from his rest, exaggerating his perusal. He walked slowly up close. So close he could wrap an arm around Adam’s waist and turn him to face Jaz, nuzzle in real close and ask, “Awwww, what do you think Jazzy? Adam already too pretty?”

The laugh that was surprised out of Adam was entirely worth it. “Yeah, what do you think, Jazzy?”

That impertinent impersonation killed her. Jaz's smile was broad and brilliant and at odds with the faux seriousness with which she replied. “Make him pretty as fuck, McG.”

```````````  
McG faux-marched Adam into the still steamy space behind closed doors. Jaz let the boys play a bit in the bathroom before her curiosity got the best of her. Vaguely, she wondered whether McG planned to go all Jonathan Van Ness on Adam and if this is what ‘manscaping’ entailed?

The sight when she knocked and opened the door to twin “come in’s!” was fairly tame. McG had Adam leaned back against the counter, fingers lightly placing dots of some milky substance around his face. The expression on said face was a delicious combination of reluctant tolerance and derisive silence and perhaps a fine layer of pleasure underneath.

“Is that moisturizer?”

McG looked vaguely like she was a heathen beneath his expert knowledge. “It’s a serum - glycolic acid, other anti-aging agents.”

Their CO took offense at that. “Hey, now - I don’t need anti-aging!” He aimed a withering expression at Jaz, as if it was her fault. She just put her hands up in the air and pointed out, “It was in McG’s bag, not mine.” Seizing that moment to distract Adam, McG used the pads of his first two fingers to rub the silky liquid into his forehead, his temples, around his eyes. Adam leaned into the touch, closing his eyes to let fingers closer.

“Mmm.” Adam’s hum had a different tone from last night. Still formed from pleasure, but with far less desperation. The captain opened his eyes. “Whatever it is, it isn’t all that bad.”

McG raised an eyebrow. Adam letting him tame his beard, smooth out his skin all just served to remind him: he knew what he was doing. “Why don’t you two take a hot bath? Get cleaned up while soaking out some of that tension?” He ran strong hands down Adam’s arms, emphasizing the tautness of the muscles there.

The idea appealed to Jaz’s closeted love of pampering post-mission. “Adam?” she checked while voting in favor of it.

“I’ll run the water.” He replied. Minutes later, Jaz was leaning back against the tub opposite the continuing stream of hot water waiting for Adam to join her. Jaz piped up in reference to her earlier defense. “I do have an emory board, though…”

Easing into the hot water felt so good that Adam didn’t even protest the idea as McG headed out to grab Jaz’s kit. He just leaned back against his girl and told himself this was about making the two of them feel like they could take care of him. That those efforts were wanted and appreciated and normal. It wasn’t hard to admit they were doing a damn fine job at it.

McG returned. Still in his boxer briefs, he maneuvered one long leg onto the lip of the tub against the wall and sat on the slight ledge above the tap. A set of implements clattered onto the ledge next to him and then McG reached for his foot. He started with carefully pushing against them with a stick. “What are you doing?” Adam genuinely had no idea.

Jaz patted the front of his shoulder and replied, “Never mind - you just let McG do his thing.”

His thing. Adam flexed his toes and McG chortled. Ran a thumb between two to keep them in place, even though all it did was make Adam wriggle. “Careful, McG!”

Laughing out full and loud, McG relished the admonishment. Adam was coming back to his usual self, even if he was indulging McG in grooming him far more than he normally would. “Got it, sir. No tickling your toes.”

He finished working on his feet and moved to smooth out his fingernails. Having his hand held so carefully, the intense appraisal on his fingers, reminded Adam just how well he had been handled this trip. He cleared his throat.

“Thank you.”

The hand holding the emory board flexed, fingers itching to press until they took from Adam what McG now knew they could. He felt an awful spiraling pit open up in his stomach.

“You don’t need to thank me. Is that what this is? Why you let Jaz order you into mani-pedi’s and a shave? To thank me for services rendered?”

Adam was startled by the demanding tone, the harsh implications sinking in quickly. “No! That’s not what - Jaz told me. About aftercare. I’m supposed to ask you what you want, find out how to help you, I don’t know - feel like you made a difference. A good one.” He felt Jaz stilling behind him, blending into that place where she watched what was unfolding from outside the situation. With his right hand, he grabbed hers out of the water and wrapped it around his waist to hold it flat against his abdomen. With his left, he knocked the emory board out of the way and slotted his fingers between McG’s.

“Guess I should have done that instead of assuming I knew what was going on with all - this,” he nodded around the bathroom, gesturing towards the scene of their mutual grooming. He tugged on McG’s hand. “Should also tell you, we’re going to plan better - for next time. For you.”

Jaz muffled a not-quite-chortle into Adam’s wet shoulder before looking up at McG from behind the protection of Adam’s body. Enough of an inside, isn’t-he-adorable look to set McG at ease with that declaration. He tightened his fingers around Adam’s.

“Now I get to say ‘thank you.’”

Adam tried tugging again, but the doc stayed firmly in place at the end of the tub. So Adam shifted his legs and surged up close enough to give him a messy kiss on the cheek and a nuzzle. Water splashed with him and the entire gesture had Jaz giggling in delighted surprise.

Content that Adam was working through whatever issues lingered after giving it up to him - and that Jaz was equipped enough to start him well down that path - McG wrapped his hands around Adam’s shoulders and rubbed across his back. “Yes, okay. Thank you. We’ll plan for next time.”

Adam was nodding as he eased back to Jaz. Long muscled legs clambered up and onto the floor. McG grabbed a towel and threw over his shoulder, “I’m gonna order up some food - you two hungry?”

```````````  
They ate with some action flick on quietly in the background. Jaz teased McG about owning more beauty products than she did; he joshed back that she spent more on children’s books than products made for grown ass women. “They’re ‘young adult fiction,’ McG. I am a young adult.” Adam scoffed at that, earning a pillow thrown across the room that almost landed in his plate.

When they were done, McG piled their empty plates and glasses and used napkins and cutlery onto their trays and loaded them on the hallway floor outside their door. He came back into the room and glanced around, making sure everything he had packed was stowed back in his duffle.

“So I talked with Amir, just to check in. He’s heading into Adana to go to that market he loves, the one with the local produce stalls? I’m gonna join him there, see if I can’t convince him to make some baklava for dessert.” He was rubbing his hands together in anticipation. It wouldn’t be hard - Amir was a pushover for making their favorites. McG’s unending appetite had provided a nice touchpoint between the two, Adam reckoned.

It was a bit strange to see him so gleeful at the prospect of good food. How could McG be this giant kid when it came to picking out dessert when just a few hours ago, he was patching Adam back together and ordering him to come? It was just, really fucking normal, this guy who wanted to be fed by his teammates and smooth out Adam’s rough spots and hell, head out to a bar with his new favorite wingman, for all Adam knew. It fucked with the captain’s head a bit. He should probably mention that to Jaz at some point - get her perspective. He wondered if she found it disconcerting, too.

“You have the room for another night - you should take your time making your way back.” He crooked his finger at Jaz in the universal come here gesture and she bounded over to give him a squeeze and a smack on the lips. Adam didn’t get a playful gesture. McG hauled him up against himself silently and gave him a hearty embrace. The kind of brothers-in-arms, I’d-die-for-you clasp around the shoulders that Adam well knew from service. They held it a moment and then McG grabbed his bag and headed out to join Amir.

And while Adam hadn’t been at all reticent when he’d had the prospect of another night with their friend, he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t excited about a night alone with Jaz in fancy digs away from the team.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing terribly triggery in this update, though please do take care to review the tags for the overarching context.
> 
> Bit more aftercare. ...mostly in the form of fucking. And then some plans to plan.

Adam felt a deep calm soaked all the way into his bones. It wasn’t as strong as after they all got off together last night. Still. He could feel muscles so relaxed he was sliding down the pillows propping him partly against the headboard. He opened resting eyes when the weight of the bed dipped and saw Jaz climbing over him to the side of the bed. She stripped off her own clothes and found the tee Adam had worn here. Slipped it over her head. Adam watched the soft cotton settle against her curves and wanted to slip his fingers between the stolen fabric and her skin. 

He was still thinking about that possibility as his possessive instincts turned into dreams.

A warm, supple weight leaned into his side when he woke an hour or so later. Jaz had pulled the comforter over them again and was watching the television with the captions on instead of sound. Adam shifted to sit up a bit more and move muscles infused with weighty repose. His love smiled down at him, that sweet smile Jaz only ever gave him when they were alone and she was feeling particularly sappy.

“Hello.”

“Hey. Thanks for letting me…” Adam gestured at his nest where he had slumbered. 

Jaz’s smile just deepened and took on that jaunty air entirely familiar to her face. “‘Course. You needed it. Any ideas for what you wanna do for the rest of the day?” There was nothing suggestive in her tone; she really was curious, and maybe wanted to give him a sense of choice over what happened next. Just trying to get him to talk to her some more, tell her what he needed for this part of their little getaway.

Sultry voice or not, Adam had some definite ideas. “I was thinking about spending it in bed with you.” 

“Oh, really?” Jaz looked over at Adam to check him out a bit. Then she shifted up and over to straddle him where he half-sat back against the pillows. “Still running a bit hot from earlier?”

The shudder that worked through Adam at the thought would have made him a liar if he’d tried to deny it. Fuck if Jaz’s question didn’t call to mind a few choice memories. Like the hazy memory of her adding to McG’s arms, her strong thighs on either side of his own, holding him right in place. Maybe next time they could get McG...better situated...before they got to that point. Since Jaz was all adamant about the three of them fitting together occasionally. Fuck that was going to be so fucking hot. His hands worked their way up her bare legs to hold her hips against him. “You are the best girlfriend ever.”

“Yep.”

Still teasing him. Adam wanted her to know he meant it - he was so lucky to have her, to have someone who understood that he wasn’t always going to be able to handle all this by himself. To get _Jaz,_ who he had been so sure would never be his. 

She seemed to catch the sentiment as it moved through him. With a firmness that might be left over from last night, or might just be all that fucking confidence he loved in her, she moved his hands from her hips to the pillow underneath him. Still holding him there, she leaned down and kissed him. So fucking light and sweet. Then she rubbed her center up and down and he hummed up into her mouth. She wasn’t wearing any panties under his shirt. 

“Yeah.” She kept her mouth close to his. “I’m thinking we’re pretty good together.” Such a fucking tease, wrapping up her praise in an off-hand comment like that.

“So good,” he agreed.

He was already filling in beneath her. And, Christ, was he torn between letting her push him back, staying as still as he was told while she kept on leading this slow teasing thing between them...or pushing up into all that wet warmth of her. Taking what he needed. All...insistent and _his._

Jaz could feel the tension rise in him as he battled between those two options. “Hmmm. Tell you what I want. I wanna come a few times before we’re done. Want your mouth on me.” She leaned in slow to kiss said mouth again. “Keeping me on that edge. Fuck, I don’t even care how you do it. But I know how hard you worked last night to be good for me - for us. So I’m gonna ride you first. Let you get a little reward out of the way before you focus all that attention on me.” Adam was hard just listening to her, feeling her teasingly just out of reach over him. He had loved last night, the way fucking had seemed secondary, almost inevitable. But this? Jaz giving him parameters, planning out what he needed to do to satisfy her? This would be good, too.

Jaz shifted above him. “Then maybe, if you’re good, it’ll be your turn again. After you get me off a few times, you can have me any way you like. If you want. Think you can manage all that?”

He’d thought this was going to be the kind of slow build they sometimes stole in the early morning when they knew they had some time before everyone else was up. Jaz was a particular fan of waking up to leisurely teasing as they worked themselves into hard won orgasms. Now, with Jaz sharing filthy plans and promises, and the images of last night still replacing anything else in his mind, he was already sure he could make it again today - twice, if he was good. He knew he could be.

“Fuck, Jazzy. You got it.”

She didn’t even answer, just sank down onto his length. His vision whited out as she began to ride him, swiveling her hips like she was chasing her own pleasure, not letting him take his. Maybe he wasn’t the only one still running hot from their adventures.

“Mmmmm. So hard. That for me?”

God, she was riding him hard, up and down, taking him into her pussy over and over.

“Feel good, Adam?” She steadied herself with hands on his chest, holding herself up over him.

Felt like a tight wet tidal wave and he had no choice but to let it crash over him. Jaz shifted, leaning back. Brought her hands down low over his belly.

“Come on - talk to me.” Her head was tipped back as she rode him. 

They’d never played at that before - they couldn’t at the Quonset and they hadn’t been on leave together yet. Adam was thrifty with his words, used them more sparingly than their gregarious medic. Always did know how to pack the most meaning into them when it came to getting Jaz to come around, though, and this? Talking about what she was doing to him, how he wanted to hear her, too, make her feel so damn good, until she couldn’t keep it in anymore? Let her know what it felt like when she changed angles, slowed down, how good she looked leaning back and rubbing her clit like that? How she couldn’t keep her hands off herself and he couldn’t either? Fucking hell. It was like the words scraped the pleasure right up out of his throat. He couldn’t stop now if he wanted.

She was always beautiful, but like this she was so open, not hiding how much she wanted him. That would never stop getting to him. He told her that, too.

“So good like this, Jaz. Mine. You’re - ah! Mine!”

Jaz opened her eyes and found his. “Bet your ass I am.” His hips snapped up at that, losing his rhythm to chase that fact. Jazzy was his, she said so, said she was his. Fuck!

The words kept bubbling out of him. Or, at least, he thought they did. Maybe they were just moans and broken sounds of pleasure at this point. Adam couldn’t really tell. All he knew was Jaz’s tight wet heat, squeezing and rubbing and so fucking steady on his swollen dick. And her hands on his chest, pressing his heart down down down. Like she could keep it from flying off even as he came closer and closer to falling apart beneath her.

“Jaz!”

“Mmmm.”

“God - Jaz! Need, please. Please.”

“It’s okay, baby.” Her voice was low. Steady. So close to him. “You don’t have to wait for me. You come if you need to.”

He did. Adam couldn’t help it, he shouted with his pleasure when he came. Afterwards, he would be shocked, if not slightly ashamed, that he had been so loud. So...public. Jaz laughed him off, saying it was a hotel. Folks expected they might hear a good time. 

```````````  
Adam was pretty sure he dozed only a bit, a quick cat nap after another hard release. At his side still, Jaz was smirking a bit. That was alright, he thought. She was feeling pretty proud of herself? She fucking deserved it. 

Adam pounced up and pulled her down under him not in retribution, oh no. Quite the opposite actually. The trail he was kissing from her neck down over his collarbone was his favorite. Hers, too.

“Mmmm, my turn now.” She practically purred, hand coming to tangle in his hair.

“It’s always your turn,” Adam teased. Even if she weren’t such a demanding lover, he would like to think he would be just as thorough in that regard. And not just because he loved the taste of her.

Jaz used a gently insistent hand to turn his jaw up from her bellybutton. “Not true.” For a moment he thought he was being called out, that she had some sort of confession to hint at, before she continued. “Sometimes it’s your turn, Adam.”

Oh. He rolled his eyes at her going sappy on him. Would these sorts of reinforcing measures be laced throughout sex from now on? Cause that could get awkward. Make him a bit squirmy when he was trying to set his patience against a very particular end goal here. Adam rubbed his nose down the crease of her left thigh. 

“It is, Adam.” Her breath hitched when his tongue traced the same trail his nose had taken. “You gotta let us know when it’s your turn.” _Us._ Adam couldn’t decide if he wanted there to be anyone else in this bed right now except the two of them. He definitely wanted to make her lose her breath again. Rubbing his newly trimmed beard up and down the inside of her thigh oughta do it. “Oh! That’s -!”

“What was it you called it?” Adam ran the pad of his thumb from her ass up her slit. “Sensation play?” It hadn’t been her; it had been McG. Talking out loud, explaining what he was doing while he worked Adam into oblivion. No matter. She had told him to keep her on edge, right?

```````````  
When he finally let her come, his fingers inside her, his mouth steady on her, too, she had clenched her thighs so hard around his head and his shoulder that Adam jolted with the memory: her thighs squeezing his hips with McG’s muscular arms pulling back across his chest and biceps. He let out his own moan against her pussy, wanting the pressure to go on even as her orgasm started to ease. And when she was done, the quivering of her pussy slowing down and her noise subsided, Adam came up over her and kissed her deep on the mouth.

He was hard against her hip and pressing into her skin everywhere they touched. Crowded over her like he was the one who had been fighting for his own pleasure this entire time.

“God. Didn’t you, like, pass out after your turn?”

“Yeah. And then you told me I could ask for what I wanted...”

He saw her lips quirk up and he descended onto her neck, that place under her ear that always kept her hot, really got her going. That wasn’t fair, she thought, just as his teeth scraped over it again. Then Adam whispered into her, “Wanna stretch you out. Fuck that gorgeous ass of yours.” 

They didn’t do this often, but it certainly wasn’t the first time they’d tried anal. Usually it was Jaz that asked for it, though. Was he still trying to repay her for taking care of him this weekend? Adam sucked one of her nipples into his mouth and she moaned around her question. “Did McG leave the lube?”

Oh God. He’d brought lube with him? For some reason he didn't examine too closely, that ramped Adam up even more than eating out Jaz. He looked up from her breast and saw a black bag on the nightstand. “Kit’s still here…”

Jaz moved up and out from under him, crawling over to the side of the bed. She unzipped the bag and found a bottle of lube. “Yep.” She turned and shook the bottle at Adam. “Always prepared.”

“Pretty sure McG was never a scout.”

Eyebrow raised, Jaz shrugged, then lowered back onto all fours. Slowly heading back to him, “You sure you care?”

Adam lay there on his back watching her with nothing but love and appreciation in mind for their medic. And his girl. Jaz leaned down and kissed him, sweet and then deep and then moaning some more. He sat up enough to slap her ass and then she was moving down to face the end of the bed. 

They took their time opening Jaz up, though it didn’t seem to take very long before she was grinding back on three fingers, hands braced against the bed as she tried to take them at her own pace. Adam rubbed the head of his cock through her swollen labia before positioning it against her ass and pressing it in.

“Uggghhhhh. God.” Jaz always had to fight off getting vocal when he took her like this. “Fuck, baby. So good. You can - oh!” Adam was already speeding up, fucking her a bit harder. He knew what she liked and this was going to get them both there in the end.

Adam wasn’t sure how long he was going to last - if he hadn’t already come earlier, he was sure he’d be fighting back the urge already. Her ass was so tight, her curves firm with muscle and rounded over the dip in her waist. So fucking smooth. Definitely not like McG’s ass would be. Fuck.

And Jaz was moaning pretty steadily, clearly enjoying the fullness and way her muscles had to give up, stay loose to let him in. Her voice another constant reminder this wasn’t the ass that Adam maybe could have had this weekend. Another time like this. And yet, it was McG’s grunt from last night he heard in his mind, spurring him faster toward inevitable release. Even though McG had kept himself from grinding up against Adam while Jaz rode them both, he had been so hard. Would he have let Adam inside him, too? Like Jaz, working himself over him until he had to rub himself, get off with him deep inside?

That’s exactly what Jaz was doing at this point, one hand clenching the sheets, the other buried in her soaked pussy. She knew from the sounds above and behind her that Adam was close. “You gonna come in that ass?”

One last hard push and a solid grunt. She could feel him pulsing inside her.

“Ohhhhh, me too. Me toooo!” Rubbing furiously, Jaz gave one last moan and came so hard her arms and legs were shaking. Adam yelped with her ass clenching around him, either in a second bump or because he had grown too sensitive, Jaz had no idea. Wasn’t sure she cared very much right now.

Adam pulled out slowly, then flopped down next to Jaz. She still lay on her stomach and turned her head to the side. “Shower?” He wasn’t really asking, so much as inviting her to join him.

“Fuck yeah.” Jaz rolled out of bed after him and, as she caught up behind him, slapped his ass.

```````````  
Later, after making sure their bag was packed and ordering one last meal up to the room, Jaz asked an inevitable question. “Earlier - when you could have me anyway you wanted.”

Adam did not choke on his bite of steak.

“Were you thinking about McG’s ass when you made your selection?”

The fork in Adam’s hand felt heavy. He put it down. 

“I mean, I get it - it’s a pretty fine ass.”

Adam rolled his neck on a sigh. “Don’t - make jokes.”

Jaz sobered. “I’m sorry. You’re right. It was a serious question.”

Seeing the discomfort tightening Adam’s face and shoulders, Jaz knew this was important. If it weren’t, they would have already moved on to something else - how much they’d miss this air conditioning. Whether they might spend leave walking around naked. Starting up a betting pool on what McG had persuaded Amir into making for dessert.

Instead, Adam was searching for words with more tension than she’d seen since their first few hours here. “I’m only asking because - I think we should talk about it. You know, like partners do.”

She wouldn’t call him her boyfriend. Said it sounded like junior high and too much like needing permission to stay out after curfew.

Adam was still trying to reward her every time she acted like maybe they could make this relationship into the real deal, though, so he gave her a bit of honesty in return. “I don’t...want him as...anything real.” That wasn’t quite right. “Or, full time.” He tried to explain it wasn’t a question of comparison. “If you weren’t here, I wouldn’t want him instead.”

For her part, Jaz was being patient, listening intently and nodding along in encouragement. She was going to wait out the next bit, so he might as well share.

“But.”

“But?”

“I don’t know. When we - do this?” Somehow his gesture around their hotel room signaled something much bigger about the weekend. “Yeah. Maybe.”

Big eyes still on him, letting him work it out.

“I might want to think about it.”

She could live with that kind of ambiguity - as long as there was a plan in place. “Thank you for sharing that with me. This,” glancing around the room, referencing his own gesture’s meaning. “With me.”

Jaz turned back to her own meal, taking another bite. “We don’t have to have it all figured out this weekend. But I’m serious about planning. You know, for next time.”

Adam picked his own fork back up. What had he said earlier? Best. Girlfriend. Ever.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reading and planning and all is well in the world post-Adana :-)

Back on base, Amir outdid himself making dinner fit for gormands. Which they were not, though McG certainly put away enough to make his appreciation unmistakable. “I don’t know if I have room for dessert…” McG moaned after clearing his plate a third time.

“Really?” Checked Amir. “Because I made that Qatayef you begged me to make.”

Jaz couldn’t believe it when that announcement made McG’s face light up. “‘Begging’ is not inaccurate. Maaaaaybe I have room for one. Or two.”

It was Preach’s week on KP and he began gathering plates to the sink. Jaz boxed up a portion of the leftovers into the tupperware with her initials scribbled on each surface. Didn’t want McG going and finishing them tomorrow before she even got a chance to protest. 

Adam traded his seat at the kitchen table for his seat at the de facto desk and pulled out some of the never ending paperwork he was charged with submitting. From his new perch, he added to the post-meal banter.

“McG, you do know you can always have your Qatayef tomorrow?”

The dark hazel eyes that met Adam’s were equal parts intense and playful. “Pretty sure I can have dessert now and more later, if I want.”

There was no way Jaz could keep her face clear, so she headed to her room. Let Adam work out the banter that now might be bad flirting if he wanted to dive right back into work. He knew where to find her if he decided he’d had enough of either for now.

```````````

A few hours later it wasn’t Adam knocking at her door. It was McG. 

“Hey there, mind if I come in?”

Jaz smiled from her bed where she sat reading. “Hope this is something good - Mim Malone is seriously my new favorite person. What’s up?”

The door closed behind McG and he leaned up against it. “Can I call dibs?”

“Preach already asked for it next - I think they might be reading it together in his house.”

McG shuffled a bit at that, “Fuck that’s adorable. Even I can’t exactly argue with that.”

The gold lion bookmark Adam had given her for her birthday lay on the bed next to her. Jaz slipped it between the pages her thumb had paused and set the book down next to her. “C’mon McG. What are you really here to talk about?”

“About adorable teammates, actually. A few in particular.” That fondness that crept across his features? That was what had originally endeared him to Jaz. There was never any attempt to hide how much he cared for them. No matter how Jaz fought it, he loved his friends and didn’t see why that love shouldn’t be shared.

Maybe if Jaz hadn’t made a face at such a sentimental objective, McG would have seen how this weekend had relaxed her, too, and moved on. Instead what he saw was a conversation he maybe should have had with her before leaving Adana.

“You were really something this weekend, you know that, Jazzy? Not many people have the kind of confidence to let their man be Dommed like that by someone else. And God, you took to it so well yourself.”

Jaz considered the feedback. “That was...not exactly a hardship.”

Remembering how quickly she came once they moved to the bed, McG hmmed in appreciative agreement. “Just so we’re clear, though: I am not interested in getting between the two of you. I’m interested in the opposite of that.”

The snort Jaz let out couldn’t be helped. “Good, because I’m pretty sure Adam’s called dibs on being in the middle.”

The laughter felt good between them, right and unfettered. Dinner around the table together had been fun, yet still held an element of the performative, not quite on balance after their sideways adventure. This? The quick volley that wrapped up the bare facts of themselves inside teasing? This was familiar and exactly what Jaz needed. 

There was something else that would help her return to solid ground. “Would you get over here? You’re being all - weird and far away.”

There was a soft smile now behind McG’s eyes and perking up the corners of his mouth as he folded his large frame down onto the bed beside Jaz. Propped up against the wall, Jaz settled down into him. With McG’s solid frame beneath her head, it was easier to confess. “Adam really needed this, needed you. I can’t thank you enough.”

“I’d do the same for you, you know. If you needed it.” That pronouncement came out low and gravelly and entirely honest. It was built of the same tones and pauses and easy truth McG commanded to coax his loves to give it up and let him in. Jaz took a moment to let that sink into her mind, back behind all the regular noise to the place where her instincts were formed. Took a deep breath and snuggled down into her friend. 

“Thanks,” was her simple reply.

“Any time.” He snuck the fingers of one hand under the elastic band holding up her hair and carefully tugged it out. As he smoothed her hair, McG asked, “I know you talked to Adam about top-drop and how important it was to care for me after our scene. That ridiculousness in the bathtub.” Jaz giggled as she remembered Adam insisting that McG let him plan for better affection.

“He take good care of you, too?” That brought back different memories. Ones she wasn’t sure belonged anywhere other than between her and her love.

“He did.” She answered primly. 

The laughter was their norm once again and he relented. “Good, good to hear. Wouldn’t want anything we did together to interrupt your epic romance here on base.” 

The gasp of outrage was followed by a mostly-pulled punch to his abs. “Come on, Jazzy! Seriously, you have to know you’re, like, the worst-kept-secret version of a girlfriend on deployment, right?”

It wasn’t exactly news that everyone had their suspicions, but no one had dared voice them aloud. At least not to her. 

In a bid to make it up to her, McG offered, “Besides - you keep up helping Adam deal with allll aspects of himself like this, and you won’t need to worry about anyone ever stepping in on your territory, secretly or not. If you want, I can lend you that book I was telling you about while we packed. I know you said you wanted to ‘bone up,’ as you put it.”

“That would be awesome. Thank you. Still not getting Mosquitoland before Preach.”

The knock on the door interrupted his quip in response. Adam’s voice followed. “Jaz?”

“Come on in!” Lazily, Jaz yelled from bed. This weekend might have involved a lot of time in bed, but Jaz could definitely use some time actually sleeping.

Adam paused in the doorway. “Sorry - didn’t mean to intrude.”

“Nah, come on in.” McG stood up from the bed while beckoning Adam further into the room. “Jaz and I were just discussing a book trade.”

Adam’s eyes flitted over the mint green book on the bed. The gold glint between pages caught his eyes - and warmed his heart. That gift had been part of their inevitable tumble into admitting the true depth of their feelings for each other. The reverie was broken as McG clapped him on the back on his way out the door. “Sleep tight, you two.”

The protest died on Top’s tongue as McG winked at him. There might not be any going back. Adam was only somewhat surprised to find he didn’t mind the idea of the team knowing about him and Jaz. He’d have to see how she felt about it.

```````````

That night passed quickly, with Adam and Jaz wrapped around each other in her bed. The nights were cool enough to allow them to burrow under a blanket, which somehow added a new layer of intimacy. Or maybe the new intimacy would be there no matter what their bed felt like. And if Jaz was on top as they fucked in the early morning, Adam struggling to keep their noise to a minimum, well. That was nothing new.

```````````

Several weeks passed with the same return to normal. Amir cooked up a feast every time they had more than two days together on base. Preach began reading Mosquitoland alongside his daughters and wife. They invited Jaz to join their online book club, though she politely declined. Frankly, she preferred her and Preach’s conversations after he’d had a chance to listen to his girls’ theories and analyses. 

One night after everyone else had turned in and Adam joined Jaz, he caught sight of a new book pinning a gold lion between its pages. “What’s this?” He picked up the hardcover and turned its weight over in his hand. ‘La volonté de savoir’ didn’t mean anything on its own. In smaller lettering, ‘Histoire de la sexualité’ spoke pretty much for itself. Slight amusement peeked out Adam’s eyes as he found Jaz from where he stood still next to her, their bed.

“Little light reading?”

“I borrowed it from McG. You might enjoy it, too, at some point.” 

The mention of their doc together with a sex book had Adam even more curious. “Is it about - you know. Submission?”

Jaz sat up on her heels on her side of the small bed. They didn’t want to flaunt their nightly activities too bad so she wasn’t wearing one of his tees. That just meant her own sleep shirt fit closer to her curves, stopping just above the swell of her panties-covered ass. “Maybe I should read some key sections to you?”

“That really how you wanna spend our time together right now?” But Adam was already climbing into bed and leaning back against her pillows. Automatically, his right hand reached out and rested at her waist, not quite pulling her into his side. Just holding onto her. Maybe later it would be teasing her a bit while she read. Maybe she’d push him back and demand he keep still while she mapped out his own body, French phrases spoken into his skin. 

Maybe they should read this entire set of philosophies together in bed.

```````````

Their third time round with Foucault’s history, Jaz casually remarked that there were also other, more practical resources McG thought they might read. “Sorta study up a bit,” was how Jaz phrased it. Which reminded Adam that he had other homework of his own.

No more than a week later, Adam plopped a thick, demi-bound report on the table where he was working on an after action write up. With a glossy plastic cover sheet and dark blue back, it looked like their briefing packets. McG flipped open the cover and turned a page and saw that it _was_ a briefing packet. Of sorts.

“What the fuck is this!?”

The fridge wafted cool air over the two of them as Adam grabbed a couple of beers. He handed one to the doc and took a seat across from him. “It’s a plan. For next time.”

_D/s Protocol for Omega Team Seven_

_Primary operatives: Joseph McGuire, Jasmine Kahn, Adam Dalton_

McG thumbed through the thick packet. “There’s gotta be fifty-something pages in here.” Something caught his eye and he stopped on a page. “Is that...a diagram?”

Adam had thrown that one in to make sure his own understanding of hard no’s versus soft no’s made sense within the communication protocol laid out. 

The doc was thumbing through pages more slowly now. “Awww. Did you include a kink list for us each to fill out?” He paused to look up at his CO.

“I told you we were going to make plans for you, too. This isn’t just about me. Or, it shouldn’t be. When we…”

“...play?” It didn’t matter that McG’s voice was low and hot and plucking that cord inside him. Adam still couldn’t wrap his mind around that term. “It’s not...this isn’t a game. Not really.” 

McG reached over and picked up the pen he’d been using to draft his AAR and jotted something on the back of the front cover. 

Adam wanted to know what he’d missed. “What are you doing?” 

“I’m taking notes. You don’t want us to call it ‘play,’ we won’t call it that. How do you feel about ‘scenes?’”

At some point, hopefully in the near future since he was the one who had set them more squarely on this path, Captain Adam Dalton would be comfortable answering that question. For now, he huffed, rolled his eyes, and tipped back in his chair. “Go read the briefing, McG.”

“And then we’ll convene for Q&A? Run through the op scenarios?”

“We’ll schedule them once everyone is up to speed. I still gotta give Jaz her copy.”

McG stood to take his reading to the privacy of his own bunk. “Now that is going to be a fun conversation.”

As he sauntered out of the living area, McG noted “No preliminary debriefs with Jazzycat before looping me in. That would be cheating.” Except he said it in his regular McG voice and the sway to his hips was loose and playful and not at all directed toward Adam. So he absolutely planned to add this plan to he and Jaz’s sexy bedtime reading material.


	8. Protocol Deployed, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Good thing they had a protocol for just these sorts of situations...  
> Or!  
> Adam isn't the only one who needs this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year y'all.

The knocking on the door to his bunk was out of sync with the throbbing in McG’s head. Maybe if he ignored it, whoever was checking to see if he wanted some dinner, wanted in on team movie night, wanted to go a few rounds with the tequila would just leave him alone.

Because any of the foreseeable options, anything with other people, really, would be a bad idea tonight.

The triple-knock came again. “McGuire?” 

Fuck. Top wouldn’t just leave. Not if he didn’t answer, tell him he was done for, heading into an early bed. McG’s jaw tightened just thinking about what he really wanted tonight. 

Not that he was asking. They didn’t do that.

The latch clicked, drawing McG’s eyes to the slow-moving door. “Hey,” Top spoke quietly as he shut the door behind him. “Jaz said to come find you.”

Their resident sniper was off recertifying and had missed today’s mess in Armenia. McG didn’t begrudge her that. Not one bit. Losing a kid was never easy, not for anyone, and he knew it would have hit her harder than most. Harder, even, than him. He didn’t want that for her.

Couldn’t help wondering, though: Had Top used the sat phone to soothe his own hurts? Confess their failure and seek absolution from the badass love he knew would forgive him, even when he couldn’t forgive himself? Fucking Lifetime movie if he did.

And that’s exactly what Top looked like, still leaning back on the closed door. Puppy dog wide eyes. Body held in some cross between relaxed and attention, leaning back on crossed wrists. Just - offering up so much. Himself and so much more. That base part of McG could see it all, just there, out of reach.

“Respectfully, sir, but get out. I’m not in any mood tonight. Okay?”

“Oh really?”

That was just close enough to the CO voice Top used in the field that McG felt the answer rising in him before he had could hardly recognize it. Quelling the response in his own body lent a further edge to his voice. “Yes. Really.”

“What’s your color, McG?”

McG couldn’t believe him. “My color? My color is nonexistent because we are not doing this.” The way he rushed Top, though. The way he pushed up into his space stood in direct contrast to his denial about what they would or would not be doing that evening. 

Adam just adjusted himself until he fit more squarely under McG. Pushed one leg between his and cozied right up. Fucking Christ. And then he began speaking, expecting McG to follow along when all he wanted was to lean into him, push and push until he could feel himself righting his ability to properly, so carefully, pull someone back together.

“Is there or is there not protocol for this?”

“Top.”

“Adam,” he corrected softly. “I’m Adam when we’re like this.”

_This_ currently entailed a half-negotiated position against the wall that had McG’s blood singing. Fuck. He had to figure out how to sort _this_ into any one of the existing boxes in his head for how not to screw up his CO. He wouldn’t let himself do that.

“Adam…” The tone was low and layered with foreboding.

“’s okay, Doc. Ask me what my color is.”

No. Nope. No way Top was calling this on his own.

But then Adam pulled out his phone and clicked something before holding up the screen.

“His color’s green - or, it was when he told me you lost a patient. A kid. Thought you might need someone to help remind you that’s not on you. We’re here to do that for you, McG. And I’m green, too, by the way. In case you’re wondering.”

Damnit. McG chuffed his head to the side with a harsh laugh. Top hadn’t just reported back to Jaz; he had tipped her off and now they were playing their hand. Turning the tables on this whole Dom Protocol and, and he just, he really wanted it. Wanted to prove he could still manage this without anyone else dying tonight. And that wasn’t fair - to either of them. Jaz wasn’t even really here.

“He’s not buying it, Jaz.”

“McG? You gonna make me fly back early? It’s a long flight, but I can still kick your ass at the end of it.”

The doc reached out to hold the phone along with Top. Aw, shucks. That meant he had to wrap his hand around Adam’s. Decide how to move it to suit his own purposes. Damn that felt good. Just that little bit of power, that little tiny decision that had Adam letting him adjust the angle of his wrist, the way he held the video chat on his phone up for McG. 

“Nah, Jazzy. You don’t gotta kick my ass.” He was looking at Adam while he said it, right in those bright blue eyes.

“Good. Pretty sure it’s been kicked already today.” He tried not to let the vision of Jaz turning her assessment on him from several hundred miles away influence his decision. In fact, he closed his own eyes against it. 

Adam saw the inch and took a mile. He was already starting to feel the edges blur, so rubbing his face against the doc’s, moving his mouth over to his ear felt a bit bumbling. Worth it to share the words, though. Shift his friend over to a better place.

“I know you’re hurting, McG. Feeling responsible. Feeling...inadequate. ‘s not true.”

Still on the line, Jaz watched the nuzzling, heard the sweet, persuasive tone in her love’s mumbling, and hummed. 

“Need you to do this for me, doc. After today? And seeing you? Like this? Need you -”

McG cut off that plea with a hand on the scruff of Adam’s neck, pulling him back flush against the wall. Arm still out holding his phone, chest heaving a bit with the effort to stay still. Not making any unsanctioned moves. 

“You think you know what I need?” McG’s chest was heaving a bit, too.

Still caged by fingers tight in his hair, Adam nodded his head slowly in the affirmative. 

McG had forgotten Jaz was watching the whole thing unfold, prompting it even, just by being willing to be present for this. “Adam said you might need help remembering. You’re good at this, McG - getting people to take what they need.”

Adam licked his lower lip and looked to the side. Fuck if McG didn’t want to follow that flick of pink tongue with his own tongue. Taste Adam until he stopped looking away.

“Doesn’t mean you always get to the end point you’d like, we know.”

Adam added roughly, eyes still cast to the side. “What end point you want tonight?” He cut his eyes back to McG and he was done, he knew it. No way he wasn’t answering that. 

“You. Trusting me when I say you’re the best thing that happened today.” The rosiness that brought to his CO’s cheeks was so pretty. The doc couldn’t help but nuzzle his nose against it. “We gonna get that end point? Make it better than the last one?” He voice hitched in reference to the clusterfuck from their mission’s conclusion. 

Adam bit off a whine, not wanting to think about that. Not when he was getting this kind of attention, starting to open up between the wall and his best friend. The noise that escaped him made McG want to open his mouth, scrape teeth against skin. 

The noise from the phone still in Adam’s hand at shoulder height against the wall reminded him they weren’t there yet. “Mmm, yeah you are. You better. You listening to me? To us?”

“Yeah, Jazzy.” Adam slurred. “Green.”

He looked up at McG as if to confirm. “Green. Definitely.”

McG let his words hang in the air until their heaviness was fully between them. Then he turned to Jaz, taking the phone from Adam’s hand and replacing it with threaded fingers and a firm push back against the wall. “Thank you,” he said simply. 

“You’d do the same for me, remember?” McG chuckled and nodded. It was true. He’d need to start expecting it to still be true in reverse every time.

“And Joe?”

The use of his first name pulled his attention back to the video call. 

“Take good care of him.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He said it like a vow. She nodded and the feed cut out. McG tossed the phone onto the bed behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this threesome isn't everyone's jam, so thanks for reading especially if it isn't! More chapters of my other Jalton (and McJalton) fics are also coming soon to a screen near you.
> 
> The title is a nod to the great Michel Foucault.


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